Musselman is always my favorite race of the year. It was my first triathlon ever and it was my first long distance triathlon so it holds a special place in my heart. The course is relatively easy and very scenic. The race is always well organized and there are tons of spectators cheering on race day. Not to mention they have the best goody bags around.
Race day started for me at 5:30. I had planned on leaving at 6:00 to make the hour long drive to Geneva. I had everything ready the night before so all I had to do was grab my transition bag, a banana, my Gu Brew and Chobani out the fridge and I was off. It was a beautiful morning driving up Rt. 89 (Rt. 89 has always been my favorite place to drive). I haven’t done much driving at all this summer and I forgot how much I enjoy driving on scenic roads, it was so peaceful. I was calm and in a great mood when I arrived in Geneva.
My first stop was Hobart William Smith College to get my packet and goody bag. Goody bags this year contained a tech t-shirt, big bottles of salon style shampoo and condition (I know all the girls would agree this has to be the best idea ever), Gu’s, Cliff bars, Nuun Tablets, and Wool Sports socks (seriously, who doesn’t like a good pair of Wool Socks… and they have the cute Musselman logo on them).
Next stop was the park. I went through my usual routine, got my bike out, tires pumped up, and race numbers on before heading over to body marking and transition area. I was all ready to go by 8:30. The first wave went off at 9:00 and my wave went off at 9:18. As I was hanging out by the starting line I had flashbacks to two years ago as I stood there waiting for my first triathlon to begin. I remembered how nervous I was and how little I knew at that race. I began to think about all that I been through since then; how much more I know, how much better I’ve become. My mind kept going to back to the fact that I’m currently training for an Ironman (a distance that I never believed I would ever accomplish two years ago). I suddenly felt inspired. I figured if I’m training for an Ironman I should be able to have a respectable finish at a sprint. I decided I was going to try and race as fast as I could (I usually just race to finish and enjoy it). With this new mentality I entered the water to begin the swim. The swim is my weakest event but I knew that if I wanted to be competitive in the race I had to be competitive in all three disciplines. I lined up towards the front of the pack of swimmers before we were signaled to begin. Once the race began I found a swimmer similar to my pace we took turns passing each other till the end.
Next was the bike. I’m always a bit cautious on the bike because I don’t want to wipe out. It helped that I knew the course from racing it previously. I knew that it would be easier to pass people once I was out of the park so I just stayed where I was in the pack until we were out of the park. I’m usually the one being passed on the bike so I was very surprised when I noticed that I was passing more people than people were passing me. I maintained my faster bike speed throughout the race. It seemed like I was only on the bike course for a few miles but before I knew it we were turned around a heading back towards the park. The whole bike ride I was constantly scanning for other people in my age group that I could pass (not my normal racing behavior). There was no denying it… my competitive side was in full bloom.
I approached the park, slowed down and began to prepare myself for the run. At that point I was trying real hard to place in the top 3 of my age group. I usually run with my mp3 player but I didn’t want to get a time penalty for doing that so I left my mp3 player in the transition area. I did a good job hydrating myself during the bike so I felt great as the run started.
I continued to pass people on the run. I didn’t feel like I was running fast but I must have been. I only got passed by a few people but no females passed me during the run. I was still scanning for people in my age group ahead of me. I passed one around the one mile mark. I found one more in my age group about a quarter mile away from the finish line. I sprinted past her as fast as a I could and tried so hard to keep up that pace until the finish line but before long I felt nauseous so I slowed down. I zoned everything out and only concentrated on my breathing and by the time I got to the finish line I was back to feeling good. I made it to the finish line before the other girl was able to catch up with me. I didn’t pay much attention to the finish line clock but I knew I had raced much faster than ever before. I’ve never felt that good before, during, or after a race.
As far as nutrition goes I used some advice that I got from my local triathlon club list serve as a guide for my race day nutrition. I had a water bottle mixed with Gu Brew with my breakfast on the ride to Geneva. On the bike I was constantly sipped on Gu Brew and I also had a pack of cliff shot blocks (I had a second water bottle mixed with Nuun but didn’t need it). I had one cup of water on the run and took one other cup and splashed it over my head to cool down.
I ended up finishing with a time of 1:34:31. This was 19 minutes and 12 seconds faster than I’ve ever raced a sprint course. My swim was 5 minutes faster than the last time I swam this course. My bike speed went from 15.1 to 18.1 and my run mile splits were 7:36 (my fastest mile splits ever). I ended up finishing 5th out of 45 in my age group. I was bummed I didn’t place higher but I was happy with my performance. I feel like my nutrition was spot on for the race. I had plenty of energy the whole way through and even though it was hot I was able to hydrate well enough to feel good from start to finish (minus a few seconds of feeling nauseous on the run). This race taught me that nutrition is a key factor to a good performance. I also learned that I can go much faster than I give myself credit for and I look forward to exploring that more in the future.
Once again Musselman didn’t let me down. I would highly recommend this race to anyone- the goody bags alone are reason enough to sign up!